At the end of the year the Book God and I reinstated Saturday Night is Movie Night chez Bride, and there are many good movies that for various reasons I haven’t talked about here as yet, but that’s all going to change with what I hope will become a regular monthly movie update.

DUNE Part 1 – 2021 * 2h 35m * Denis Villeneuve

Beyond fear, destiny awaits

I actually quite enjoyed the David Lynch version of Dune despite its occasional silliness and terrible ending, but I was very excited when I heard that Denis Villeneuve was going to direct a new versions, and I wasn’t disappointed. Such a great cast, stunning visuals and a fairly faithful representation of the story made this a real pleasure to watch. If you like beautiful, intelligent science fiction then this is for you, but let me warn you, its a long one…..

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ETERNALS – 2021 * 2h 36m *Chloe Zhao

In the beginning…

… were the Eternals, immortal beings planted on Earth for reasons we don’t find out for ages, influencing humans, being celebrated in myth and legend and coming together after many years apart because the bad guys turn up and cause havoc. They are a nicely diverse bunch with different powers who have fractured as a group over time but are determined to save humanity from the nasties. Doesn’t turn out to be quite that simple. Cue two and a half hours of enjoyable shenanigans I didn’t know much about this aspect of the MCU before going in but I managed to keep up and it was certainly a spectacular film, though perhaps a tad too long. I’m, sure I’ll watch it again, especially given that one of the Eternals is very, very Scottish, which I appreciate. And my girl crush on Angelina Jolie remains intact.

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THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE – 2004 * 2h 9m * Jonathan Demme

Everything is under control

Towards the end of last year I finally got around to watching the 1962 version of The Manchurian Candidate, based on Richard Condon’s novel and starring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey & Angela Lansbury. I enjoyed it, although it was very much of its time. I decided that I would like to watch the remake where Sinatra becomes Denzel Washington, Harvey is Live Schreiber & Meryl Streep is the new Angela Lansbury, and the setting is moved from the Cold War to the aftermath of the first Gulf War, but the story is still the same – a group of soldiers is kidnapped and brainwashed to nefarious ends. Having watched them both I think I favour the 2004 version; there’s a feeling of dread and paranoia that’s missing from the original. Well worth a watch.